Everyday Creative, Creative Every Day

Entries Tagged as: light

The color drained out of Lori’s face when I asked her to describe her relationship with money by drawing it. She looked at me like I was crazy-- then looked at the art supplies, then glanced out the window.

I focused on making a pot of peppermint tea for us, and when I returned she was working intently on her image, purple, red and black flying across the page. When finished she looked up and smiled at me, shaking her head. “Oh, my god!” she said, laughing, “I had no idea I felt this way!” She had drawn a hot air balloon full of money rising into the air, and a tiny little stick figure running after it.

I asked her to give the image a title. “That’s easy! It’s called ‘Beyond my reach’”. She flopped back in her chair and laughed—“Yup, that’s the story of my life! I can see money, almost taste it, but just as I’m about to FINALLY have some financial stability or solid cash flow something happens and puff! It’s gone.”

Using creativity to discover and heal your relationship with money is powerful, insightful and transformative. Ultimately it helps you step outside of your money story so that you can gain perspective, have a good laugh, and begin the process of choosing a new healthier way of being.

Here are five ways you can leverage your creativity to lighten up around money so that joy and possibility can begin to seep in:

1. Draw or find an image that reflects your current relationship with money. Write about what you notice, what surprises you, where you are in the picture. Then draw a new image representing how you want your money relationship to feel. Remember to make sure that you AND money are in the picture!

2. Get an egg—a real egg—and decorate it, give it a name and personality. This represents your nest egg, that which provides financial stability and protection from catastrophe. Carry this with you for a week, being careful not to drop or break it. What if you treated your money with this same level of love and respect?

3. Send money and love notes to people that inspire you—the very act of doing this generates positive energy around money. To read more about this concept, click here

4. Money-In Calendar: post a wall calendar for the sole purpose of noticing when money comes into your life—salary, bonuses, alimony, interest, gifts, refunds—all of it. You can even get more playful and use different colored post-it notes to mark increments of money-- $50, $100+, $250+, etc. (shameless self-promotion: just a dollar contribution to our Kickstarter campaign gets you a beautiful Wild Money calendar that is perfect for this activity!)

5. Create a sacred space for doing your money – make an altar, use a special candle, light incense, surround yourself with money positive images—and give thanks for what you have and how you show respect for the money in your life. Create a little ritual for loving yourself up after paying your bills—a nice glass of wine, some dark, yummy chocolate or a bubble bath.

My wish for you is that you learn to see your creativity as a gift that needs training wheels for new terrain. There is nothing wrong with you. You aren’t missing the money gene. It is possible to lighten up while taking your money more seriously. You are worth it.

To pre-order your books and help with Luna’s Kickstarter campaign, click here. Bonuses at all reward levels! Ends March 2nd.

Luna Jaffe, visual artist and Certified Financial Planner™ is the CEO of Luna Jaffe International, a company dedicated to inspiring creatives to transform and heal their relationship with money. She is the author of the forthcoming books Wild Money: A Creative Journey to Financial Wisdom and Wild Money Financial Field Guide and Journal. More at www.lunajaffe.com

This piece I'm calling "Laundry Lines" is 6"x6" with acrylic and ink on panel. I started out thinking the colors were going to be SO different. It was going to be a more wintery scene, lots of blues and purples, but it went in a very different direction. I love being surprised as I create. Yellow isn't a color I use a lot, but it fits so perfectly with the light theme this month.

I hope everyone in the Northeast survived the blizzard. We got just over two feet of snow, but the craziest part was the snow drifts. They made banks up to five feet high in some spots!

I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month on the blog to help keep you inspired. You can use the posts here for jumping off points or interpret the theme in your own creative way. If you need some suggestions, here are a few ideas to get you started. You could:

*Get out in the sunshine. I know it may be cold in your world, but the sunshine is good for you. Let it inspire your work.

*Write about how light or lack there of impacts you.

*Fill your space with different kinds of light as you create. Light some scented candles. Let the atmosphere inspire you.

*Paint with the colors of the sun.

*Draw and/or doodle with a light-hearted attitude. Have some fun!

*Create something that will light up someone else's day. A special meal, a sweet valentine, a bunch of gerber daisies?

What makes you feel lighter? Movement, releasing your thoughts through words, painting, talking to someone? Add more of what makes you feel light this month.

How to use the CED themes:

If you're feeling creatively stuck or blocked at any point during the month, use the theme as a source of inspiration to get you moving. Feel free to focus on the theme in your creative activities for the entire month or as much as you'd like.

Using the theme is entirely optional for CED participants. Use it if it inspires you, ignore it if it doesn't. I'll be sharing posts throughout the month around the theme (among other things) to get you thinking about how to incorporate it into your life. I'd love to hear how you use the theme in your creative world.

And have fun with it!

People are like stained - glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within. ~Elisabeth Kubler-Ross